The present invention relates generally to outdoor cooking apparatus and, in a preferred embodiment thereof, more particularly provides an improved barbecue grille having separate swing-out food and solid fuel-supporting grate structures, a popup flue, and a variety of other useful and convenient features.
Outdoor barbecue grilles using charcoal or wood as a cooking fuel are widely used and quite popular. In a typical construction thereof, the conventional barbecue grille has an elevated, leg-supported housing with a top opening coverable with a removable lid. A charcoal grate is removably supportable within a lower portion of the housing, and a food supporting grate is removably supportable within the housing adjacent its open upper end which snugly receives the lid. The two grates are installed by dropping them into the housing, and they are typically supported in the housing by circumferentially spaced series of upper and lower internal support tabs. The grates may be removed from the housing by lifting them outwardly through the open upper housing end. With the lid in place directly over the food supporting grate, adjustable combustion draft control is provided by small slide damper structures operatively positioned on the lid and in the housing beneath the fuel supporting grate.
To prepare for cooking, the fuel supporting grate is dropped into place and a suitable quantity of charcoal is arranged in a mound on a central portion of the grate. The mounded charcoal is then doused with starting fluid and lit. When the resulting flame has died down, and the charcoal pieces have turned white, the burning charcoal is spread in an even layer on the fuel supporting grate. The upper food supporting grate is then dropped into place, the food items are placed thereon, and the lid is placed over the open upper housing end to begin the cooking process.
Several well known problems, limitations and disadvantages are typically associated with conventional barbecue grilles of this general type. For example, charcoal ash tends to fall downwardly through the lower housing vent openings beneath the fuel supporting grate and is usually blown around the yard -- even when an ash-catching plate member is positioned beneath the lower vent openings. Additionally, if the lid's vent openings are not closed after using the grille they readily permit rain or sprinkler water to fall into the housing, thereby accelerating rusting of its interior and causing residual ash therein to cake in a difficult to clean mass.
Another problem, quite familiar to backyard cooking enthusiasts, arises when it becomes time to lift the housing lid and turn and/or rearrange the cooking food items on the upper grate. To accomplish this task it is often necessary for the cook to place his hand directly over the upper grate, and thereby over the often intense rising heat from the burning fuel -- even when using an elongated turning fork or the like. Additionally, particularly when greasy food such as pork is being cooked, lifting the lid often causes "flame up" which can burn both the food and the cook.
Finally, particularly when large roasts, or other items requiring lengthy cooking times, are being prepared it is usually necessary to periodically add additional charcoal during the cooking process. With conventional barbecue grilles of the general type described, the cook has two charcoal-adding options -- neither of which is particularly desirable or efficient. First, he can simply remove the upper grate and the food items thereon, find a suitable area upon which to temporarily support the hot grate and the usually dripping food, appropriately position additional charcoal on the burning layer thereof, and then drop the upper grate and its supported food back into the housing. The inconvenience of this procedure is readily apparent. Alternatively, the cook can drop additional charcoal chunks, one-by-one, through enlarged peripheral openings often formed in the upper grate for just this purpose. However, as might be imagined, it is quite difficult to position a piece of charcoal beneath a central portion of the upper grate by dropping it through a peripheral edge portion thereof.
In view of the foregoing, it is accordingly an object of the present invention to provide a solid fuel-burning barbecue grille which eliminates or minimizes the above-mentioned an other problems, limitations and disadvantages commonly associated with conventional barbecue grilles of the general type described.